Egosoft Interactive FAQ

DevChat is an abbreviation for Developers Chat and is a xml-based Chat, which can be accessed via the forum. Despite its name it's a chat for everyone for discussions about different topics. The chat is multilingual, which means that there aren't different chatrooms for different languages but one chat, where everyone can speak the language he or she wants. Though English and German are currently the main languages.

Usage

The chat can be accessed via the 'Chat' entry in the Control Panel (boardstyle: Modern X2) or the 'XML-Chat'-entry at the top of the forum index (all other boardstyles), via the Egosoft mainpage: Community -> Chat or directly via this link. It is optimised for the Internet Explorer, but can also be used with all other well-known browsers (Firefox, Opera, Safari, Google Chrome). Although those have some little problems with the chat, like not working special characters or not storable preferences.

Note: In forums you can find some user-made clients or programms, with which you can access the chat from the game or without the use of a browser.

In the chat window you can send a message by typing text in the text-box in section "Commands" and pressing [Enter]. After some seconds (worst case, normally there are 1 to 2 seconds between send an receive) the text appears in the communication window. If you click on an username in the userlist his/her current name will be placed with an @-sign infront of the name in the text box. This helps to identify the user your message is addressed to. You can send private messages by clicking first in the little box (next to "Send Private Message) in the right, top corner of the userlist and then at the username you want to talk with. For formatting your text, you can use the same bbcode-tags as in the forum as well as url-tags.

Note: The img-tags are working in the chat, too. However don't use them! Even small images can easily destroy the chat template. So, it's better to post a link to the current image or to use a private message.

You can also use emoticons. The emoticon codes are as follows:

:D
:)
;)
:|
:(
8)
:s
o_O
:oops:
:P
:o
:roll:
:wall:
:wtf:
:++
:==
:--

After sending the code it will be replaced with the current emoticon in the communication window.

Note: Excessively posting of emoticons will be seen as spam, which is a violation of the rules and will draw consequences by the moderation. If you want to test emoticons, use the private message function and address yourself.

Additional pieces of information about writing and formatting text can be found in the [info]-window (press [Ctrl]+[F]) at the bottom of the chat window. Also you can set several preferences (like defining preset texts or defining a sound, that is played when a certain message was written) in the [config]-window ([Ctrl]+[n]). You'll leave the chat by clicking at the [Logout]-button ([Strg]+[o]).

Note: Although you leave the chat after a click at the [Logout]-button, you still need to close the chat window manually.

For the different DevNet-Levels there are Level-Chats, which can be accessed via the dropdown menu at the bottom of the chat window. The different levels are marked through different colours and numbers. The letter behind a username represents which board language the user has: (D) stands for German, (E) for everything else.

Rules

As the DevChat belongs to the forums the forum rules apply in the chat, as well. Also the moderators of the forums are moderators of the chat.